A MAN CALLED HORSE

Discover the life of Juan Cavallo, also known as John Horse.

John Horse was a Black Seminole born in 1812. His father was Seminole, and his mother was of Native American and African descent. This book follows the forced nomadic movements of the group as, led by John Horse, they made their way from the Southeastern U.S. to Mexico. Each chapter follows their journey to a new, hopefully safer land only for them to be disappointed again. One of the best-known facts about the Seminole Nation is how they helped with the Underground Railroad and saw themselves as protectors for runaway slaves, confronting the former White enslavers and claiming to be the runaways’ new masters. Aided by archival illustrations, Turner’s straightforward account contextualizes that and other facts, informing readers that the Black Seminole lived as free people, apart from paying a share of their harvest for protection against these incidents. The book is written in an easy-to-digest manner; although it does not go into great detail, it is an excellent introduction to the history of the Seminole, who went from prisoners and slaves in the U.S. to being seen as valuable for their skills at the U.S.–Mexico border. Turner traces the ebbs and flows of politics, from Gen. Thomas Sidney Jesup’s policy of containment that ended the Second Seminole War to U.S. Attorney General John Y. Mason’s cancellation of that scant protection.

A worthy celebration of a life too little known.